NGO requests UN sanctions on rebel leader Bemba

The African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADHO), an independent human rights groups based in Kinshasa, asked the UN Security Council on Tuesday to act against Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Ugandan-backed rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), whom they accused of looting the DRC’s natural resources, AP reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the group stated that looting in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu has become “a race against time” and is now the principal motive for fighting between Bemba’s fighters and Mayi-Mayi militia groups. The rights group asked the Council to “create mechanisms to block the export of looted goods” from the DRC. The NGO also claimed that civilians in Bemba’s territory are victims of “daily extortion, massacres and sacking of entire villages,” and asked for the creation of an international board of inquiry. A UN report earlier this year charged Uganda, Uganda-backed rebels and Rwanda and Rwandan-backed rebels, among others, of plundering the DRC’s vast natural resources, including millions of dollars in diamonds, gold and coltan. Bemba, however, has denied any wrongdoing, AP noted.